The Harris Files Book One
by Hawklan
Summary: How Xander found out that a Chinese farewell can have consequences...
1. Chapter 1

The Harris Files: Book One

by Hawklan

How Xander found out that a Chinese farewell can have consequences...

The Harris Files: Book One

Disclaimer: All things from BTVS belong to Joss Whedon, all things from Harry Dresden to Jim Butcher. All other know things mentioned in this fic belong to their creators and so on.

Note: This is fanfic, so you can bury canon 3 feet under the ground on some cemetery.  
Note2: It is also not beta read, because I gave up looking for one. So all spelling and grammar errors belong to me, if you point them out for me to fix them that would be awesome, but don't complain about them without examples, because I warned you before the fic *g*.  
Note3: Yes I know I probably should have continued with the sequel to my fic 'The reading', but you know if you hear Audio books on you drive to work, it can happen that you are bitten by a vampire plot bunny and if you don't follow your masters wishes it may take out the holy hand grenade *g*. Ok enough babbling, on to the fic.

Chapter 1

"You won't believe what I have to tell you, you know vampires, demons and all the other things you have heard about in fairy tales? They exist. ...yes I can see your face and I know what you're thinking. 'Who is that lunatic? Should he be in a psychotic ward?'"

"No, I shouldn't ,and yes, it's true, they exist. Why am I telling you that? Simply, knowledge is power and the things that go bump in the night are as strong as they are because mostly no one believes in them anymore and so they can operate in the dark and hunt humanity without much resistance. Of course there are a few hunters out there and I've met several of them after my life changed for the second time."

"Again I can guess your thoughts. 'Why is he telling me that? Who is he?' And so on..."

"Ok, let me answer that one with who am I."

"I am...me. Ok, Ok I know my humor is strange. It always was, even before and I totally blame the drunken bastard who claimed to be my father. If I hadn't used humor as a defense... Who knows who would have killed whom, but back to the topic. I'm Alexander Lavelle Harry Raistlin Harris. Quite a mouthful isn't it? This time I blame my mother. Oh and I forgot to mention that I'm a Wizard."

...

"Don't look so surprised, I've already told you vampires and demons exist. Why would a wizard be more unbelievable?"

...

"Oh...no, I'm not a wizard like Harry Potter, they are a different kind of wizard."

...

"Yes, I liked those books about him too, at least until The Prisoner of Azkaban anyway, after that the series went downhill at Mach 3."

...

"Stop right there, we could discuss that the whole evening, but then I couldn't tell you more of my story so let's talk about the shortcomings of that book series later. Again back to topic, yes I'm a wizard. How has that come to be, you ask? Ohh that's a long story... "

Before the man sitting at the table in front of you could continue, a beautiful looking brunette with all the right curves sat down in Alexander's lap and sipped from his beer. "Hi there, I'm Faith and he blames the Chinese takeout quy," she said with a smile and then kissed Alex and you could feel the temperature rise a few degrees watching that kiss.

After a few minutes a slightly bedazzled Alex looked at you and said, "Ok, maybe the story how it happened is shorter than I think," before you could say anything Alex turned to Faith and said, grinning, "Hello my love, could I have another of those? I missed them quite a lot the last week."

Without another word Faith kissed him again.

Several minutes later they ended their kiss and Alex looked into your direction again, "Woahh, Faith can turn you mind from any topic if she wants to," he said, smiling.

After he ordered half the menu on the card he turned his attention to you again, "As Faith said, I'm blaming the Chinese takeout guy, but that's only part of the story. It all started in high school when I met the new girl in our year for the first time. As it turned out later, she would be the first of the fighters against the darkness that I'd meet. She turned out to be the Slayer, a girl chosen to fight against the vampires and yadayada...To make that a bit shorter, I overheard our new librarian and the girl talk about the Slayer and vampires and so on and shortly after that my friends Willow and Jesse were kidnapped. We freed Willow, but Jesse was turned into a vampire and later on I had to stake him in the Bronze to protect a girl I didn't like very much at the time. From that moment on Willow and I joined the fight and helped Buffy, stop giggling, that was really her name. That was the first change in my live, but not the last."

Here he paused for a moment, while you all eat the food you've ordered. You stare in amazement at the amount of food Faith was eating.

After you all finished your meals Alex continued, "We fought against several adversaries then and all was kinda normal, in our kind of way, until shortly before Halloween. A new Chinese food court opened and being his first customer, he bestowed a book upon me called 'The Dresden Files: Stormfront' and then after I thanked him for that he said goodbye with the words, 'May you live in interesting times'. Sadly I didn't know the meaning of those words at that time and so I took the book and the food and headed home. After I dodged the drunken bastard and reached my room I laid down on my bed and while eating I started reading the book. It pulled me in so much that I closed the book the next morning and then had to hurry to get to school in time. After I reached school, Buff, Willow and I were shanghaied by Snyder, our principal, to escort children for Halloween. So we went to a costume shop called 'Ethan's', where I bought all things needed to go as my newest hero from the book I'd just read. I bought a black duster, something that resembled a staff and a blasting rod and so my costume as Harry Dresden was perfect. That choice dictated the second change in my live and I became a wizard."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

While trick or treating with the children, a wave of chaos magic hit Sunnydale and everyone who bought something from that cursed shop was turned into whatever person or thing his costume represented. Buffy became a French noble woman, Willow a ghost, Amy an awesome looking young reporter and I? I think you can guess that. I turned into Harry Dresden, at least partially. I was still there as Harry appeared and we shared my mind for the evening and I just have to say that I like Harry's humor.

Shortly after Harry arrived we stumbled over the body of my friend Willow. Man, that was quite a shock for me, finding Willow like that, and that wasn't the last shock of that evening. Just a few moments after we found her Willow suddenly stood before me in a ghost like form. I nearly jumped out of my body at that point. After we talked a moment I picked up her body and we went to Buffy's house, which was the closest. There we stored Willow's body and Harry pointed out, after going through my memories of the last few days that only the owner of the costume shop could be the one at fault for all that chaos.

I sent Willow to the library to inform Giles and to keep an eye out for Buffy. Seconds before I left Buffy's house I heard a sound coming out of the kitchen. I quickly went into it and saw a dark silhouette near the table. Before I could do anything myself, Harry took control, raised the staff and shouted "Fuego." A stream of fire was hurled into the direction of the intruder and before he could dodge, he was hit by it right in the middle. The intruder stood going up in flames for a second or two and before I could do anything, he exploded into a cloud of dust.

"Damn Harry, what was that?" I asked Harry's presence in my mind.

"It was a vampire and we killed it," Harry answered.

"If that was Angel, I better not tell anyone about that part of the evening," was my comment.

After a quick check of Willow's body we ran to the shop. At that time of day the door was naturally locked, but Harry didn't even let me stop before he shouted, "Forzare." An unseen force blew the door off of its hinges and with a loud crash it landed somewhere in the shop. We stormed through the door and not seeing anyone at the front, we quickly ran to the backroom. There in front of a statue of the roman god Janus (yeah I know, I never heard of him, but Harry supplied that information) kneeled the owner of the shop, who I met yesterday and who had introduced himself as Ethan.

With a quite forceful hit I hit his back with my staff and after he sagged to the ground, he moaned out loud in pain, while I put the staff under his nose. In quite a civilized tone (cough, cough) I asked, "Tell me how to break your spell, warlock, or the next thing I hit is your nose."

In a painful tone he coughed out to destroy the statue.

As a thank you I didn't break his nose, I just mumbled, "Dormio, dorme," and then the warlock fell asleep. After that I turned to the statue and like a professional baseball player I hit the statue with my staff. The problem was that my staff rebounded. Nothing happened, the statute was still whole.

"Let me try something," Harry said and I just nodded.

Harry raised the staff, pointed it at the statue and yelled, "Arctis."

The statue looked like it was covered in ice. This time Harry hit it with the staff and the statue exploded into a thousand tiny little pieces and suddenly I was hit by a wave of magic that felt like I'd been hit by a freight train. Without any chance to resist I fell to the ground, unconscious.

This ended the evening for me.

Later I was told by Giles, that he arrived at the shop shortly after a magical shockwave had swept through Sunnydale. Willow told him about what happened to all the people who had changed into their costumes and that not everyone had changed. Thanks to Cordellia, whom Willow met on her way to the library, they deducted that only people who bought their costumes at 'Ethan's' had changed into someone or something. After hearing the name Ethan, Giles hurried to the shop where he found me and the still sleeping Ethan.

Luckily for Willow, Buffy and most of the others the chaos spell had no lasting consequences, except that Buffy can now speak French like she was born there.

Xander took a sip of his beer and looked at the young person at his table and nodded, "You're right, I said most. For some people the night had consequence. A friend of us, Amy Madison, dressed as a reporter, as I told you before. Sadly she dressed as Susan Rodriguez."

Xander listened to what the listener at his table said and nodded, "Yes, the Susan out of The Dresden Files which was later turned into a Red Court Vampire. She wasn't the only one who had something left over from that night, besides us there were a few others, but that's another story. And as you have guessed, I stayed a Wizard. I woke up three days after Halloween with a headache as big as Mount Fiches and with all the knowledge, skills and power of one Harry Dresden."

After Xander kissed Faith again he continued, "That was the short version of how I started on my path as a Wizard. After that I helped Buffy a lot. We saved the world a few times, met the Slayer who was called after Buffy died at the hand of the Master. Believe me that was quite a surprise, somehow the Council of Watchers must have forgotten to tell us about that little fact. Sadly Kendra was killed by a crazy vampire bitch called Drusilla a bit later because of a stupidity on Buffy's part and that's how Faith came to be called as the next Slayer."

Hiding a yawn Xander continued, "So my young friend, that's enough for today. If we're lucky, we'll meet again here on Saturday and I'll tell some more then."

Faith and Xander stood up, paid for the three of them and then left the bar.


	3. Chapter 3

Note: A big thanks again to Inachis, without her this would be much harder to read.

Chapter 3

On Saturday the young man we saw before was sitting at the same table as last time. Oblivious to his surroundings, he was waiting for Xander to appear and continue his story. After all, he still had to finish the article he was writing. He sat there for an hour or two and just at the moment he was thinking about paying up and leaving, Xander appeared in the doorway, looked around for a moment and then went over to the young man.

"Good evening John, are you ready for more?" Xander asked while sitting down on the free chair.

The young man nodded and at that Xander started: "Ok before we continue, as you know I'm a wizard of the White Council type and we have the so called 'Laws of Magic' to follow which would be

Thou shalt not kill by use of magic.

Thou shalt not transform others.

Thou shalt not invade the mind of another.

Thou shalt not enthrall another.

Thou shalt not reach beyond the borders of life.

Thou shalt not swim against the Currents of Time.

Thou shalt not seek beyond the Outer Gates.

And let me tell you, I broke them all..."

The young man was shocked and silent for a moment before he looked up. While continuing to avoid looking into Xander's eyes, he asked, "You did? How, when, why?"

Xander smiled before he answered, "Ahh, you will see, those questions will answer themselves while I continue my story."

Xander looked over to a waitress and waved her over. He quickly ordered a steak with potatoes and a beer. Then he turned back to John. "Hmm, last time I stopped with the death of Kendra and that my Faith was called because of that, but Faith will be in my story later on because at that moment in time we quite logical didn't know about her. While Drusilla killed Kendra my friend Willow was hurt by another vampire and lucky for us all, I woke up from being unconscious after being hit by some flying debris before that vampire could kill Willow. I quickly turned that vampire to dust with a small fire spell, but sadly, Kendra was already dead by that time. I still blame myself for not being able to help her. Drusilla being crazy, but not stupid, fled as fast as she could after she saw how I dusted her minion. After calling an ambulance and the police, and a long talk with those useless wanna be cops, I went out for a hunt."

Here Xander paused for a moment because the waitress from before brought him his order. While smiling at her and starting to dig in he continued, "Let me give you a piece of advice. Never go hunting when you're angry, at least not if you're an angry wizard, because here I broke our third law. After I went through two vampire nest without finding any information about Drusilla's whereabouts, I went to Willy's bar. There I dusted every vampire after making sure they couldn't tell me anything about Drusilla. At that time Willy was already afraid like hell, but he still wouldn't spill anything of what he knew. After intimidating him a bit more I lost control of my anger and took all of his knowledge directly out of his mind, thus breaking the third law..." Here Xander paused again and took a deep sip from his beer.

After a few minutes of silence, aside the sound of a pen scribbling over a piece of paper, Xander continued. "The sad thing is that I broke that law for nothing. Willy had no clue at all about Drusilla. After searching for her in Sunnydale for about a week I heard from one vampire that she had left the town shortly after she killed Kendra. As a thank you to the vampire I gave him a gift in form of a stake through the heart instead of a stream of fire." Here Xander stopped his tale again and took a deep gulp from his beer. "Do you want to hear more this fine evening or should we call it a night?"

After the young man gave Xander the answer that he hadn't really told him much yet today, Xander nodded and leaned back in his stool and thought a bit about what to tell now before starting: "Until Graduation our lives were kinda normal, at least for us. I learned more about being a Wizard and Faith joined our small band of heroes, for a while at least. To my shame I was so deep into learning more about being a Wizard that I totally missed how the others mistreated her and after she killed the Deputy Mayor in a friendly fire accident, she became deeply disturbed. Out of fear she tried to blame Buffy for it. Things went south from there. Her Watcher, a guy called Weasley or something like that, gave a report of the killing to the Council and they sent a retrieval team to get Faith to a trial. This was when I finally became aware of the situation and after a long talk with Faith and the others, I got the complete story out of them and tried to talk to that Weasley guy. Sadly he was quite thick headed and I wasn't able to get him to help me convince the Council that the death of Finch was an unfortunate accident and that Faith was in need of a councilor instead of a trial and thus I broke the fourth law of magic. I used my power and skills to enthrall Faith's Watcher and after a long talk with him and a few other Council members over a long distance call to London, I luckily convinced them to share my point of view. Only two days later the Council sent a councilor to Sunnydale to help Faith get over her problems."

Xander looked at the young man and then said: "You see now we're at broken rule number two. Do you still want to hear more today?"

The young man nodded.

"OK, your call," was Xander's reply.

"Let me get back to Graduation. I fulfilled the dream of every American teenager. I blew up my high school to kill our Major, who ascended to a full demon at the ceremony and planned to eat all of the students and their parents as an appetizer. After that I started the road trip I had planned for years, but instead of doing it with my friend Jesse, who died a few years ago, it looked like I would go on it alone. After I said my goodbye to the gang, Faith approached me and asked if she could join me because she needed sometime of from the Hellmouth too. So we left SunnyD and it wasn't much of a surprise when the old Harris luck hit again." Xander paused in telling the story again to order a Coke from a waitress and after the young woman had delivered his drink, he took a sip and then continued.

"Shortly after we left Sunnydale and just a few miles before Oxnard my car broke down. Magic and technology doesn't always work together, but luckily for me, it isn't as bad as with Harry. We spent a few weeks in the town and after saving the woman who owned the local strip club from a bunch of vampires, we spent a few weeks there. We had a lot of fun there and we also made a few new friends. Faith earned a bit of money by working as a bartender in the club and occasionally she earned a few bucks on stage. I earned some money by warding the club and the homes of the girls. During the time we spent there, Faith and I got to know each other much better and our friendship grew a lot. Even if we shared a room to save some money, we were only friends so far, but the tension was growing. Finally we earned enough and could buy a new car. After a small goodbye party the girls gave us, our next planned stop was L.A., where I wanted to visit my uncle from my mother's side.

He lived in one of those hospitals for War Veterans. Sadly, I only saw him once or twice during my youth, but he was always a funny guy, even if he was a bit crazy, but hey he wasn't in one of those hospitals for fun... Though, if I think about it maybe he was...I always liked to exchange letters with him and now decided to finally visit him on my own. Sadly my mom was always to drunk to drive with me to L.A. for a visit.

That's what brought us to the point where no good plan survives first contact with the enemy...and because my plan wasn't on the good side at all, it only had the chance of a snowball in Hell or a bleeding girl in a vampire nest to begin with.

After an uneventful drive from Oxnard to L.A., we finally reached the hospital where my uncle lived. I got out of the car and let Faith sleep. Just before I reached the entrance, I saw a blond man dressed like a male nurse pushing a wheelchair before him and in the chair sat a man who looked like my uncle, just a few years older than I saw him last. If I hadn't recognized him directly I certainly would have remembered his old flight jacket, because he sent me one like that a few years ago, as a present and I always loved it.

My uncle looked like he was totally dazed out and so I started to follow them. Why, you ask? That's simple. First, the male nurse was going the opposite direction from where the hospital cars stood and second, no male nurse would wear as expensive looking shoes as this man one did. OK, laugh at me for noticing another man's shoes, but if you'd have fought vampires for as long as I have and been a wizard where sometimes your life depends on small details like the wrong clothing or a correctly drawn circle, you would notice them too. I could also blame the girls for it.

After a few moments the man reached a black van and opened the back door. Because it looked to me like this guy was kidnapping my uncle, I started to run and jumped at the guy, totally forgetting I could have used my magic. Just a second before my jump kick fully hit the blond guy, my uncle got up out of the chair and asked in a confused tone. "Alexander?"

That was the moment when my foot connected with the blond one and threw him forcefully into the van."

AN: I totally blame Razial for including those guys as the first people Xander met on his road trip, so all complains are to be addressed to him *evilgrin* and an additional disclaimer will come in the next chapter after I actually tell you who he met, even if you should already be able to guess it.


	4. Chapter 4

The Harris Files: Book One

Chapter 4

Before I could follow up my uncle yelled, "Alexander stop... he is a friend."

I looked first at my uncle and then at the blond man who tried to catch his breath again. "A friend and why is he trying to kidnap you?"

"He wasn't he just got me out of the hospital, because they need our help again."

I looked a bit confused at my uncle and asked him, "Our help?"

He just nodded and then replied, "Yes mine and that of my bodyguard."

Even more confused I looked, with a big question mark on my face, at my uncle again. "Bodyguard?"

"Yes, Lurk here decided yesterday I would need him as a bodyguard and look there comes Faceman again and gets me out of the hospital. Maybe I should ask Lurk for the next lottery numbers?"

My uncle looked at the air beside him and said, "What? You knew I needed a bodyguard, but you don't know the answer to such a simple question? Shame on you and..."

A laughing Faith came over to us and helped the guy, my uncle called Faceman, up. He struggled a bit to stay on his feet, but sent Faith a bedazzling smile as a thank you and then he asked my uncle, "Murdock who is this and we need to hurry. B.A. and the Colonel are waiting."

"Ahhhh Face this is the black sheep of my family...or the white sheep?" he looked a bit confused at me for a moment, before he continued. "My nephew Alexander Harris, the one and only wizard the Murdock family has."

Face looked at me and at Murdock. "Wizard, you are a street magician?"

Before I could reply Faith broke out in laughter. "Street magician? That's good, I like him."

Xander looked at the waitress again and ordered a water for himself. After he got it and he took a sip he looked at the man at his table again. "This is how Faith and I first met the famous A-Team. We spent a while with them and we helped them out with several jobs they took, in those I got the chance to show Face that I'm not a mere street magician. We got a lot of training from them and we learned how a real team works together, that was quite a learning experience."

Xander paused for a moment and then started again. "B.A. took quite the liking to Faith and now she is the second best mechanic I know. Together they fixed my car up, never had any problems with it since then. It was quite funny for me, to watch how Face tried to hook up with Faith. Finally after a longer 'discussion' those two had, he gave up at that and I was astonished how easily he could get to other women. Sadly after a while they had to disappear for a while and so Faith and I continued our trip."

He paused here and seemed to stare through the young man, before he shook his head and smiled. "Sorry just remembering something, what happened next is a somewhat confusing time for myself and Faith, as the person we met next... well, lets just say in another time and another place we could have had something," he said.

"We headed to San Francisco and for the first couple of days everything was normal. We had fun, enjoyed a bit of sightseeing and didn't run into any trouble, until the day we heard a scream from an alley and of course we had to help, so we hurried to check it out," he explained.

We ran into the alley and found a rather large demon attacking a young woman, who seemed to be holding her own. When she raised her arm and let loose a powerful magical attack it soon became clear as to why she was able to hold out. She was a witch and I could easily tell that she was a powerful one. Actually more powerful than I had ever felt from a witch before. I quickly moved to help and Faith charged head long into the fight. Only to be flung into a near by fence, clearly the demon was very strong.

Ducking a rather powerful lightening attack from the demon, which demonstrated its own magical ability, I quickly fired back with a fuego, but I ensured to control how the fire, it created, would travel, as I did not want to hit Faith or the witch, we were trying to help.

The demon was wounded, but it released a second magical attack, which almost had hit me, if not for Faith. She charged me from the side and knocked us closer to the witch, who again unleashed her own gift and knocked the demon backwards.

"This thing is tough," Faith said, as she jumped back to her feet, alongside the witch who seemed a bit weary of us.

"Not really surprising Faith. It feels like a very high level demon," I replied, as I also got back to my feet. "Its power is impressive," I added. "Hey, nice to meet you. I'm Xander and this is Faith, we're here to help," he said, while turning to the witch, as she knocked the demon back again.

"Prue Halliwell," the witch responded, after a good minute of thinking it over. She was clearly weary of trusting us, but I think we had proved we were on the same side.

The roar of the demon brought us back to the problem at hand and I quickly was forced to move out of the demon's next attack. I quickly responded with arctis. Hoping to freeze the demon in its tracks and was thankful that it seemed to work to a degree.

Faith quickly pulled her spare stake and charged the demon again. She jumped into flip and embedded the stake in the demon's chest. This caused the demon to roar in pain and agony.

Faith quickly moved back to my side, as I whispered something to Prue and then I unleashed pyrofuego, my most destructive fire spell, at the same time as Prue unleashed her own power again. As I thought, combined it was enough to kill the demon, which roared in pain before slumping to the ground and then vanished in a burst of flame.

Silence descended for a few seconds, before Prue turned to question us. This led us to go to the club, her sister owned, called P3. We had a rather nice conversation with Prue and her sister Piper and even met their whitelighter Leo, finally we decided to hang around for a bit and help out.

He paused here again, as he drank a bit. He smiled and then continued. "We spent at least a few months in San Francisco and formed a great friendship with the Charmed Ones, which I was surprised to find were Prue and her sisters. As I said Faith and I got close to Prue, but we refused to do anything, as we could not stay," he added with a bitter smile.

"Prue understood and I think she knew in her heart it wouldn't last either. Our worlds and lives were quite similar, but we were in different areas and as I said we would leave again soon," he explained to the young man. "It was a painful parting, but it was for the best. Just before we left, we helped save Prue's life from a very deadly demon, as well as reunite her and her sisters with a, until then, unknown half sister. We then headed to our next port of call in nearby Richmond which is another story because it really started to look like that 'Trouble' was very fond of me. Damn that stupid Chinese takeout guy, but I will have to tell you this one another time. It's getting laid and Faith is waiting," he finished and then got up."See you next week then," he said before he left the bar.

After Xander left the bar, the young man thought a bit about what he had heard this evening.

'I had to say that I really could understand that the bitter look did not immediately leave Xander's face, as he told me about this encounter. I also had my own lost chances with certain women, which I regret deeply. However considering his reasons for not getting involved with this Prue I had to agree with them. Having seen Faith, I do not think I would want to risk losing her either. Also having to move on, sort of, really sealed the deal.'

He ordered a new beer from the waitress, took a drink from the bottle and then continue to think about Xander a bit. 'It seemed to me that Xander and Faith had been through a hell of a lot of adventures and met some truly impressive people, as well as some very nasty enemies. However they still seemed to have a very upbeat look on life, which surprised me'. The young man leaned back in his chair and downed his own drink, wondering what they had encountered in Richmond. Sadly he had to wait for another week to hear this story. He then stood up and left the bar also.

AN: Thanks to Razial. He joined me in this chapter and came up with most of the stuff regarding the San Fran part.

AN2: I actually have a rouge idea who they could meet in Richmond, but I also could use that idea later. So if you have an idea or a wish about who they could meet there, feel free to leave it in a review and we might use them.


	5. Chapter 5

The Harris Files: Book One 

Chapter 5

Two weeks later

The young man we have seen here before entered the bar again and hoped that Mr. Harris would appear again this week. Last week he had waited in vain for two hours, before he got a SMS on his mobile telling him that Mr. Harris was on urgent 'business' and wouldn't be able to join him that evening. After that he had left the bar a bit frustrated because he really could have enjoyed the evening better with his girl instead of waiting for nothing in a bar, but the sacrifices you make for a good story…

After he closed the door behind, him he looked around and found the usual table with the 'reserved' sign still empty. OK, he was a bit early, so he would order himself something to eat and wait for a while, this time promising himself he would go if Mr. Harris wasn't there 30 minutes after the agreed time.

He quickly went over to the table and sat down and just a moment later the young woman who worked here as a waitress came over to his table. "Good evening, Sir. Good to see you again. What can I get you today?"

"Hello Sally, something to eat, a nice steak maybe and a bottle of water," he replied.

"Ok John. Are you meeting that good looking guy again this evening?" she asked him.

"I hope so. Sadly, his schedule is always full and often he has to change it on short notice," John replied.

"Ahh, I hope he comes again this evening, I like to watch him," Sally said with a sultry smile.

John grinned and replied, "Sally… You do know he's seeing that dark haired beauty who joined us before?"

Sally looked a bit sad as she nodded. "Yeah I know, but a girl still can dream, can't she?"

John laughed and nodded. "Yes, she can, but right now I'm starving here," he said with a smile as his stomach grumbled loudly.

Sally blushed and then quickly hurried away to fill his order.

A while later after John had finished his steak. He looked around the bar again. He was full for the moment and hoped that Mr. Harris would appear soon. Almost as if that was the magical thought, the door to the bar opened and Mr. Harris entered the bar together with the dark haired beauty he had told Sally about a few minutes ago.

Both looked around the bar for a moment and then strolled over to his table. "Ah John, good to see you again. Sorry about last week, but something worth of a story happened and so I couldn't make it. Can we sit down?" Mr. Harris said.

John stood up and nodded to them in greeting. "Miss Lehane, Mr. Harris, good to see you two again. Please sit down." After both sat down, he sat down himself again as well.

Both quickly ordered something to eat and drink as Sally appeared and as she went of to get their order, Faith growled a bit and looked at Xander. "Did you see how she nearly undressed you with your eyes?"

"No Faith, I didn't. You know I just have eyes for you," Xander answered, which earned him a mind blowing kiss.

John chuckled and simply thought, 'Nice save.'

While both were still kissing, Sally reappeared with their order and watched the two lovebirds with a bit of envy and quickly left again.

John hemmed a bit and then said, "Your meal is here."

And he was totally ignored by the two. He shrugged and then with an evil grin he yelled, "Vampire".

In the blink of an eye Faith was on her feet, with a stake in her hand and looking around. "Where?" she asked.

John grinned and said, "Oops. My mistake."

Faith looked at him and grumbled.

Now that the two were separated, they noticed that their meals were there and both quickly dug into them.

After they finished, John looked at Xander and asked, "So, what do you have for me this week?"

Xander looked at him with a smile and said, "The last time we met, I already told you that our next destination would be Richmond. I heard some strange rumors about people disappearing in a theater from time to time and so Faith and I decided to check that out. After a while on the road we finally reached Richmond, but before we went to check out the theater, we decided to check in into a local motel. We picked the first one we saw that didn't look to shady and so we chose the Commonwealth Park Suites Hotel to stay in. We quickly booked a room and then something to eat sounded good."

(Park Suites Hotel, Richmond)

Xander and Faith entered the restaurant, which belonged to the hotel, and looked around. "Damn Wiz, looks like all the tables are all taken," Faith said.

"Looks like Slay-G, but look over there. Seems like that woman is sitting alone," Xander said while pointing at a young blond woman, who was currently engulfed in something on the screen of the laptop in front of her on the tale. "Maybe we could ask if we can join her," he continued.

"Slay-G?" Faith looked at her companion. "And yes, we can at least try it."

Xander grinned as he replied, "You keep giving me nicknames, and you get a few names back."

Faith grumbled something he couldn't quite hear and so he just smiled and concentrated a bit to rein his magic in. He really didn't want to fry the woman's laptop.

As they reached the table Xander managed to throw a quick glance on the screen and just thought 'Curious.' They stepped around so that they were in the woman's line of sight and then Xander spoke, "Excuse me Miss, we would like to ask if we could join you at your table, since sadly the restaurant is quite full."

The woman looked up from her laptop in surprise, as she hadn't noticed the two people before. She looked at both of them and quickly became curious, since both did look quite attractive in a kind of roguish way. "Sorry, didn't see you coming, and of course you can join me. Give me one second," she said and quickly powered down her laptop and put it into a case beside her chair. "There, that makes some room for you," she said with a grin and pointed at two of the chairs.

"Wicked," Faith said and sat down.

Xander nodded and said, "Thank you, Ms…?"

"Sullivan. I'm Chloe Sullivan, but please just call me Chloe," the woman answered.

"Nice to meet you Chloe. This beautiful creature beside me is Faith Lehane and I'm Alexander Harris, but pl…OUCH…," he suddenly yelled as he felt pain shot through his arm. Faith had hit him playfully on the arm, at least playfully for a Slayer. Of course this shattered his concentration and hold on his magic and promptly several of the lights nearby went dark and the electric scanner of the waiter who just stepped up to their table, began to smoke and sizzle.

Xander looked at Faith and said, "What was that for? That hurt."

Faith looked at him without remorse and replied, "Creature?"

"Oops…," was Xander's reply.

Chloe smiled at the two's playful banter and filed the strange occurrence, that had just happened to occur as Faith hit Alexander, away in her analytic mind and listened as Alexander started to talk again.

Xander quickly brought his magic under control again and then turned back to Chloe. "As I tried to say before I was so roughly interrupted by this dangerous and beautiful young companion of mine, please call me Xander," he managed to say without interruption this time.

At this moment the waiter returned to their table. "Sorry about that, but somehow my scanner burned out. Are you ready to order?"

Chloe noted that Xander looked a bit guilty at the mention of the scanner and then nodded to the waiter.

All three quickly gave their orders and the waiter left again.

"So, are you two on vacation here in Richmond?" she asked.

"Kind of," Faith replied. "Wiz here decided that life in Sunnydale was too boring for him and he needed a little road-trip. Since trouble always finds him, I decided to go with him to keep him out of it."

"Hey...Trouble finding me? I resent that remark," Xander said in an annoyed tone.

"Ahh… Do I need to remind you of what happened in LA and San Fran?" Faith asked with a sheepish grin.

"Uhhmm…Nope?" Xander replied.

"Thought so," Faith stated.

Chloe looked curiously at both of them and said, "Sounds interesting, so what happened?"

"Ahh noting too important," Xander replied. "In LA I wanted to visit my uncle who was sick in a hospital and as I saw a friend of his bring him out of it, I mistook it for a kidnapping attempt and, ahem, punched his friend, but in the end we stayed for a bit and helped my Uncle and his friends out with a few of their cases. In San Fran we met a nice young woman and her sisters and we helped them out with a few people who liked to harass them a bit."

Chloe looked at Xander for a bit and while he may not have lied to her, she guessed there was a bit more to those stories than what he'd told. She shrugged and thought, 'Damn my curious ex-reporter mind."

"So Chloe, I couldn't help but notice, as we approached you, that you're interested in the strange disappearances around the 'Blackwell' cinema?" Xander asked her.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 06

Chloe looked up at that and looked Xander over once again before she replied, "Yes, I am. I found the reports on it kinda strange and started to investigate the occurrence a bit."

"Interesting. What did you find out?" Xander asked her.

"Oh my, you are a curious one, aren't you? Why do you want to know?" Chloe asked back.

"Let's say mysteries intrigue me," Xander answered, which resulted in a coughing Faith as she tried to suppress her laughter.

"Why not? Can't hurt to bounce back what I've found out so far on someone. Sadly it isn't much. Most people I've talked to at this point can't recall what exactly happened. It looks like something has clouded their minds in regards to what took place in that cinema. I just replied to an email, a few minutes before you came in, to someone who claims to remember more. We agreed on a meeting in two hours in a café near the place," Chloe told them.

"Would you mind if we join you?" Xander asked.

Chloe looked at him strangely once more and then asked, "Why?"

"You could say I'm some kind of an investigator into strange things and mysteries. As I said before, they intrigue me and I try to find out what's behind them. That's why we came here. We read the articles about the missing persons and planned to look into it. Finding you now, looking into the same thing, is a fortuitous coincidence, and if we team up, we could find out what is behind it much faster," Xander said.

"So you would look into it even if I don't agree to work with you?" Chloe asked.

"Yep," was Xander's only answer.

"Ok then, we'll meet the witness together. I just hope we don't spook her," Chloe replied.

Faith smiled at her and said, "Ok, now that we've agreed to look into this case together. Why are you interested in it?"

Chloe, who had hoped they wouldn't ask that, squirmed a bit and then replied, "I come from a small town in Kansas, where I was the editor in chief of our High School paper. A lot of weird things happened in our small town that I looked into."

"Hellmouth?" Faith asked. "I hope not," Xander replied, "They should all be dormant except the one in the 'Dale."

Chloe looked from Faith to Xander and asked, "Hellmouth?"

"Oops...," Faith muttered.

"You said you investigate the weird stuff in your hometown? We kinda did the same in ours. Most of the weird stuff there happened because we have a literal portal to Hell under our High School," Xander replied.

"A portal to hell? Wow, that makes the weirdness in Smallville because of the meteor rocks kind of small time," Chloe mumbled.

"Meteor rocks?" Xander asked and Chloe just nodded to it and after a moment she said, "Yes, Smallville was hit by a meteor shower over 20 years ago and the meteor rocks, which where all over the area, emitted some kind of radiation that changed some people and gave them weird abilities."

"Don't say it X," Faith interrupted Xander before he could even start to say anything.

"What?" Xander said.

"I know you too well X. You just wanted to say something like 'Interesting, maybe we should visit Smallville to check it out'."

"No, I wasn't, but now that you mentioned it, my dearest slaygal," Xander said with a smirk. Faith groaned and only mumbled, "Damn..."

Chloe smiled to their antics and said, "If you visit, go to my friend Clark Kent there. He can show you around."

"Don't encourage him," Faith said with a mock complaining tone.

Before Chloe could reply to that a grumbling sound was heard and Xander blushed a bit. "Ahh, I think it's about time for breakfast."

They spent the next hour eating and telling each other about the strange things that had happened in their hometowns.

+H+

(Richmond a café near the cinema in question)

They entered the café and sat down at two separate tables so as not to spook Chloe's contact from the start. They would wait until she was there and had made contact with Chloe before joining Chloe and her contact at the table.

They ordered a coffee and waited for a few minutes. As the door to the café opened a few minutes later, Xander looked up and slowly let his blasting rod slip into his hand. "What is it?" Faith asked as she noted what he'd done. "That woman at the door? She has some kind of magic. I just want to be prepared," he replied quietly. Faith nodded to that and while sipping from her coffee, she glanced at the woman as well.

She guessed the woman was around 20 - 25, had a slender body and long black hair which flowed over her shoulders. She was dressed in jeans and a light blue sweater and some sneakers. While beautiful, Faith noted that the woman looked a bit haunted and ready to run. It seemed like it was a good idea not to wait all at one table for their contact.

The woman looked around for a moment and then stopped her gaze on Chloe. She looked her over for a moment and then it seemed like she gave herself a small jolt and directed her steps to Chloe's table. "Ms. Sullivan?" she asked.

Chloe looked at the woman for a second and then nodded. "Yes, but please just call me Chloe. Please, sit down."

Chloe waited until the woman had seated herself and then asked, "Do you want a coffee or something before we start?"

The woman nodded and so Chloe quickly ordered a coffee for her. After it arrived and the woman had taken a sip, she said, "So you said in your email that you can tell me more about what happened at the cinema?"

The woman was quiet for several moments and then said, "Yes." After a small pause she continued. "A friend of mine was dumped by her boyfriend a few days ago and so I promised her I'd watch a few movies with her. She's quite the horror nut and so we went into the Blackwell theater to watch one of her favorites, just don't ask me what it was called." She took another sip from her cup and then went on. "The movie had been running for an hour or so when it happened. I noticed that everybody around me seemed to have fallen asleep and before I could even try to wake my friend, something came out of the screen."

"Out of the screen?" Chloe asked, surprised and a table down Xander just rolled his eyes.

"Yes, I couldn't exactly see what it was because it was dressed in a robe, or something like that, with a hood that was pulled up. It looked around for a moment and then grabbed two girls out of the front row like they were weightless and then vanished back into the screen. Just a few moments after that everyone was awake again and acted like nothing had happened at all. I questioned my friend afterwards, but she just looked at me like I was crazy."

Chloe was silent for a few moments and just as the woman started to fidget she said, "Interesting. Do you have any clue why you didn't fall asleep?"

"No, none at all," the woman replied and the continued, "So you believe me and don't think I'm crazy?"

Chloe smiled at her and replied in a calm tone. "No I don't think you are crazy. I've seen a lot of strange things in my career. Your story might give us a lead to find out who is behind the disappearing people."

"Us?" the woman asked, surprised.

"Yes, my friends at the table over there and I. We didn't want to spook you, so I sat here alone," Chloe replied.

+H+

Xander saw that the woman looked over to them as Chloe mentioned him and Faith and the woman looked him directly into the eyes. He quickly averted his gaze, before the soul gaze could take place. There was no need for it and he didn't want to expose the woman to that.

He stood up slowly and went over to the table with Faith following him.

"Thank you for your information Miss. That will probably help us to find out what is happening in that cinema," he said in calm voice.

"No problem. Promise me to inform me when you have found out what happened. I haven't slept well since it happened and I couldn't talk about it with anyone," the woman said and gave Xander a card with a number on it. "You can reach me at that number for the next week."

After Xander nodded and put the card away the woman took a last sip from her cup, stood up and then quickly left the café.

+H+

They sat quietly at the table for a few moments after the woman left before Xander groaned and the hid his face behind his hands. "What is it X?" Faith asked, a bit worried.

Xander looked up again, looked at Faith and asked, "You remember the origins of my powers?"

"Yeah, some Chinese takeout guy and one called Dresden or so," Faith replied.

"Indeed and if there is a guy who is even better at attracting trouble than me, it's Harry," Xander said and ignored Faith's snort of disbelief. "Let me tell you of one of his adventures. This cinema thing here reminds me of it."

Faith and Chloe looked at him, intrigued, and nodded and so Xander quickly told them the story from one of the Dresden Files books about Splattercon, Phobopages and Artic Tor. After he finished quite a while later, both women groaned, just as Xander had.

"So let's hope that...," Chloe started to say but was silenced by Faith's hand over her mouth and hiss from Xander, "Don't jinx us!"

Chloe rolled her eyes and then something clicked in her brain and she said in surprise, "Wait a second...You said you have powers like that Dresden guy? You're a wizard?"

Xander grinned and replied, "Yes, and no, I will not do any love spells or love potions for you."

"What?" Chloe sputtered.

Faith grinned at seeing Chloe's face and said."That's what most people think about if they hear X is a wizard, but X and love spells? No go...I'll tell you story about that later."

"FAITH!," Xander yelled.

"Yes, oh mighty wizard? Will you spank me if I tell her?" Faith replied with a sultry grin.

"That and more," Xander grumbled and groaned as he saw Faith's grin.

"So Chloe there was this cheerleader queen and...," Faith started, but was interrupted by Xander.

"Faith... we have other things to do than gossip about my love life," he said.

"Sure stud, let's go to that cinema and find out what's behind this girlnapping, but after that I'll tell Chloe so you'll have to keep your promise," Faith said, grinning.

Xander groaned, looked upwards and said, "Why me? Why do I have to love a girl who enjoys torturing me?"

Faith looked at him dumbstruck and mumbled, "Love me?"

"Oops..Did I say that aloud?" Xander said and quickly hurried out of the café, followed by a loud "XANDER!"


End file.
